Between Individual Thinkers and Women’s Associations: an Overview of the ‘Female Issue’ in Tunisia from the Beginning of the Protectorate to World War II

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the global situation of the ‘female issue’ in Colonial Tunisia by presenting an overview of the contribution that both individual thinkers, such as Ṭāhar al-Ḥaddād, and women’s associations, such as l’Union Musulmane des Femmes de Tunisie (UMFT), made to female emancipation during the first half of the French protectorate. In doing so, we will show that Islam, nationalism and communism were some of the core elements of the issue, sometimes becoming entwined and others, clashing against each other.